Age of Liberty
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Kingdom of Sweden Konungariket Sverige (Swedish) | |||||||||
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| 1718–1772 | |||||||||
parliamentary constitutional monarchy | |||||||||
| King/Queen | |||||||||
• 1718-1720 (first) | Ulrika Eleonora | ||||||||
• 1720-1751 | Frederick I | ||||||||
• 1751-1771 | Adolf Frederick | ||||||||
• 1771-1772 (last) | Gustav III | ||||||||
| President of the Privy Council Chancellery | |||||||||
• 1718-1720 (first) | Arvid Horn | ||||||||
• April – August 1772 (last) | Joachim von Düben | ||||||||
| Legislature | Riksdag of the Estates | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 5 December 1718 | |||||||||
| 21 February 1719 | |||||||||
• Queen Ulrika Eleonora abdicated | 24 March 1720 | ||||||||
| 2 May 1720 | |||||||||
| 19 August 1772 | |||||||||
| Currency | Riksdaler | ||||||||
| ISO 3166 code | SE | ||||||||
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| History of Sweden |
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| Timeline |
 Sweden portal |
In
Suffrage under the parliamentary government was not universal. Although the taxed peasantry was represented in the Parliament, its influence was disproportionately small, and commoners without taxed property had no suffrage at all.
Great Northern War
Following the death of Charles XI of Sweden, his young son Charles XII became king, and in 1697, when he was only 15 years old, he was proclaimed to be of age and took over the rule from the provisional government. The states in which Sweden's expansion into a great power had primarily been at the expense of Denmark and Russia, formed a coalition with Saxony two years later with the aim of partitioning Sweden. After initial successes, Sweden's army was eventually reduced while the list of enemies grew. In a Swedish siege of Fredriksten Fortress in Norway in 1718, Charles XII was killed, after which most hostilities in the West ended. At the beginning of 1719, peace overtures were made to Britain, Hanover, Prussia, and Denmark.
By the
Age of Liberty
Early in 1720,
Each estate was ruled by its
Hats and Caps
The policy of the Hats party was a return to the traditional alliance between France and Sweden. Chancery President, and member of the rival Caps party, Count Arvid Horn acted with the recognition of Sweden's unequal status in this alliance. The Hats, however, aimed to restore Sweden to its former position as a great power. France supported the efforts of their ally to become a stronger military power and thus provided financial support to the Hats.[2]
The Hats initiated
The Hats avoided a motion for an inquiry into the conduct of the war by shifting the focus of the Riksdag to the issue of succession. Queen
Arvid Horn
Since 1719, when the influence of the few great territorial families had been merged in a multitude of needy gentlemen, the first estate had become the nursery and afterwards the stronghold of an opposition at once noble and democratic which found its natural leaders in such men as Count Carl Gyllenborg and Count Carl Gustaf Tessin. These men and their followers were never weary of ridiculing the timid caution of the aged statesman who sacrificed everything to perpetuate an inglorious peace and derisively nicknamed his adherents "Night-caps" (a term subsequently softened into "
These epithets instantly caught the public fancy and had already become party badges when the estates met in 1738. This Riksdag was to mark another turning-point in Swedish history. In the
Pomeranian War
Encouraged by
That same year, the Hats saw a blow to their foreign policy. At the instigation of
The Caps quickly ordered a budget report to be made, finding fraud on the part of the Hat government resulting in a large increase in the national debt and a depreciation of the note circulation to one-third of its face value. This report led to an all-round retrenchment, earning the parliament the nickname "Reduction Riksdag". The Caps succeeded in reducing the national debt, reducing wealth of the nobility in order to replenish the empty exchequer, and establishing an equilibrium between revenue and expenditure. The Caps also introduced additional reforms, the most remarkable of which was the
Although no longer a great power, Sweden still took on many of the responsibilities of a great power, and, despite losing value, the prospect of a Swedish alliance still held weight. Sweden's particular geographical position made it virtually invulnerable for six months out of the twelve, and its Pomeranian possessions provided easy access to the Holy Roman Empire. Additionally, to the east, its Finnish frontier was close to the Russian capital at Saint Petersburg.[2]
Neutrality, a relative commitment to defensive alliances, and commercial treaties with the maritime powers, became the basis of the older Caps' foreign policy. However, the Hats' relationship with France in the north drove the younger Caps to seek an alliance with Russia. This policy backfired, as France's distance to Sweden had left Sweden outside the territorial ambitions of France. Russia, on the other hand, saw Swedish land as a potential area of expansion[citation needed]. The 1772 Partition of Poland included a secret clause requiring the contracting powers to uphold the existing Swedish constitution as the swiftest means of subverting Swedish independence; and an alliance with the credulous Caps, or "the Patriots" as they were known in Russia, guaranteeing their constitution, was a corollary to this agreement.[2]
The domination of the Caps was short-lived. The general distress caused by their drastic reforms had found expression in pamphlets criticizing the Cap government, which were protected under the new press laws. The
On the eve of the contest there was a general assembly of the Hats at the French embassy, where the Comte de Modêne furnished them with 6,000,000 livres in return for a promise to reform the Swedish constitution to increase the powers of the monarchy. On the other hand, a Russian minister became kingdom's treasurer and a counsellor for the Caps. In return, the Caps openly threatened to use Russian force to punish their detractors, and designated
A joint note presented to the estates by the Russian,
Economy
The Great Northern War had left Sweden in a state of economic and demographic ruin at the start of the Age of Liberty. This period brought economic and social upheaval as well as industrial development. However, by the time the Age of Liberty ended in 1772, Sweden was by all objective measures a weaker nation than it was during its “Era of Great Power”. Its land was diminished, its
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911, p. 206.
- ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm 1911, p. 207.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 206–207.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 207–208.
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911, p. 208.
- ISSN 0358-5522.
- ^ a b Schön, Krantz, Lennart, Olle (2015). "New Swedish Historical National Accounts since the 16th Century in Constant and Current Prices" (PDF). Lund Papers in Economic History. No. 140: 5, 11, 14, 16.
Sources
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sweden". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 188–221.
Further reading
- Roberts, Michael (2003). The Age of Liberty: Sweden 1719-1772. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52707-1.
- Wolff, Charlotta (2007). "Aristocratic republicanism and the hate of sovereignty in 18th-century Sweden". Scandinavian Journal of History. 32 (4): 358–375. S2CID 144282078.
